P3: Tourniquet
by Catherynne
Summary: He had lost much more than just blood in the accident and he woke up from the operation with a death wish and a promise. He had grown numb to everyone and everything but just one. He did not know whether to be regretful, hateful or thankful, all he knew was that he had little time left.
1. Catastrophe

The catastrophe had happened just a few minutes ago, a large scale accident on the Moonlight Bridge which was now littered with corpses, bathed in crimson and reeked something very foul, because the place was cursed and would be for a very long time after what had occurred.

Totaled vehicles.

Dead bodies.

Pools and pools of blood.

The ambulance quickly arrived but all they could find were mangled corpses buried under scraps of metal and wreckage, long gone to the next world, however, after a few minutes of searching, they finally came across two corpses that were barely just alive.

A boy and a girl.

A blue haired boy that laid mangled across the pavement, in a pool of blood and tears.

An auburn haired girl with less severe in comparison but still very grievous wounds.

"How is this kid even alive?"

"Take both of them. Focus on the boy, he will not last long."

The boy was first to move, with just a slight shudder when he was lifted onto the stretcher and taken into the ambulance where he had so many people hovering over him, fussing, pumping his chest, bandaging his wounds and connecting him with the machines to keep him stable and yet, every little touch felt painful, every little whisper felt like a hammer to the head and their faces, blurred and shadowy, sometimes demonic and otherworldly, laughing at him from above.

"His heart is damaged!"

"Put the damn oxygen mask on him! And give him a cardioversion!"

The boy was lifted off the bed on the first attempt, coughing out blood as the bolts coursed through his body and into his heart. The electrode smashed against his disfigured chest again, doing more harm than good when the electricity seared the wound. On the third attempt, the boy let out a wail, the covers drenched with red.

"Oh God, his chest is cut open."

"Give him anesthesia! We can't operate on him here."

"How is this kid even alive?"

The nurse did as she was told, shifting the mask and giving him a strong dose of anesthesia to knock him out for the time being. Just when his lone eye start losing vision, he caught a peek of what he assumed was a corpse of a girl his age, being attended to by another group of medical experts and even when she seemed like dead, there was so much horror and despair on her face as if she was trapped in an abyss.

Soon, the world turned black and he remembered no more.

* * *

He could remembers bits and bits of what happened as he woke up sometime during the rush to the emergency operation, surrounded by more doctors he could count. He struggled to get his breath out one at a time and something inside his chest hurt, hurt him worse than anytime ever did and after every exhale, his vision would darken and blur. He vomited out some dark liquid and was hurled off the bed, and onto the operation table with the same demonic faces close by, this time carrying knives, scissors and other tools that they plunged into the cavity on his chest.

Bits and bits.

As his vision would darken and then return at intervals.

He could taste his own blood in his mouth for the entire duration, inhaling the foul scent in the mask they had put on him.

They took something from him.

"His kidney is busted."

And more.

"Clean out the broken rib, better to remove it now."

More of those tools cut through his skin, removing bits and bits while he could only murmur into his mask, weakly clenching his fist whenever he felt the urge to scream. Halfway through, he realized that he was crying, as a drop squeezed out of his other eye every time it throbbed with pain.

"Should we remove his eye?"

The doctor pushed the tool against his gouged out eye, cut open by glass of the windshield.

"No... No more."

Eventually the team of doctors moved back and the monitor that he was connected to began to beep, slow and steady, with occasional dips and scares but his condition had stabilized. The medical team could only glance at each other in shock and wonder, not sure how they had worked such a miracle because the boy was given a couple of minutes to live in the ambulance and yet here was, in pieces, incomplete and permanently crippled but alive.

"What's his name?"

"Makoto... both his parents could not survive his accident."

"Any of his family members here?"

"No..."

The head doctor sighed and saw the crippled child still struggling to breath on the bed that was soaked red with his own blood. "Take him to one of the rooms."

As the doctors wheeled him out of the emergency room, one could have sworn he heard the boy curse them under his shallow breath.

"H-Hate you..."

Another sharp pain on his chest forced him to tilt his head and another stretcher rushed past him, carrying the same girl he had seen in an ambulance. Her covers were a lot more white than red as she had not bled as much as he did.

A piercing scream rang out of the room she was pushed into and Makoto winced, twisting and turning in pain. The door to his room was closed and the nurses crowded him again, trying to figure out where the pain was coming from even when his heart-beat was stable on HRM until they just left him to rot on the bed while the girl carried on screaming and screaming in the room opposite to his.

* * *

Makoto figured his internal body clock had been knocked silly in the accident because he could not figure out the passage of time. He would blink and day would turn into night and vice versa, all the while he was laid on the bed, thinking back, and trying mourn the loss of his parents who had died in the accident and yet...

Numb.

No matter how farther he thought back, the only tears he shed were tears of blood whenever his wounded eye pulsed with pain, aside from that, he felt nothing as if all his tears and emotions had died in the accident.

The doctors had managed to keep him in this world but the real him had died in the car crash.

Nobody from his family had come for him even after several days and it was clear none of his relatives wanted him in their house, but all was okay.

For he was numb. And did not care. Maybe if he did not move ever again, he would rot on the same bed and die.

Death did not seem so scary now. From the accident to the trip to the ER, Makoto was sure that the Grim Reaper was right beside him, whispering a soothing yet deadly lullaby into his ear while he was operated on. He had not read much on biology but he still wondered and cursed the miracle that he was still alive. He knew his heart had sustained heavy damage as the metal of the car had cut through his chest and heart when the impact of the crash had smashed him into the windshield.

The door to his prison was kicked open and Makoto turned his head towards the source of the screams, seeing the same girl from before trying to break free from the doctors that were barely hold her to the stretcher. While the auburn haired girl struggled, Makoto flinched again, his hand finding its way towards his battered chest as the girl thrashed and clawed, screaming and screeching.

"Gack!"

"Give her the tranquilizer, now!"

Even with the curtain between the two, Makoto could see the needle that the nurse had pushed into her arm without warning, intensifying the shrill screams to a whole new level until eventually, the girl fell silent and so did his heart.

"What the?" Makoto wondered and tried to move but his entire body was still wrecked due to the accident and numb from the days of inactivity. He settled down on his bed and let out a low sigh, with the girl quiet he went back to wondering about everything and nothing, just waiting till his body would rot.

Makoto had lost parents but he did not grieve as much he had liked to. He knew his life had turned upside down but he could not bring himself up to mourn or cry no matter how much he tried. On the same token, the girl who was barely awake for an hour or two of the day had lost her parents on the same night as him, from what he had heard from the doctors and her relatives. He had seen her a few of her relatives fussing over her but with her current mental state they could not do much.

While he was numb, the girl was unstable. The doctors had to constantly inject her with sedatives to keep her calm, and for the brief time she was awake the girl would thrash and try to mutilate herself until he was forced into unconsciousness. He guessed she was scarred from the accident and the news that she had lost her parents.

But, every time she would scream or cry out, Makoto felt something stir. Even the death of his parents did little to make him feel but for some reason, the girl had a different effect on him despite the fact that he did not even know her. For days and days, he could only watch as she was given sedative after sedative, booster after booster to shut her up. The worst would come at midnight where something would happen, the lights would off, the surroundings would turn green and water would turn into blood. Such a thing had never happened before but ever since the car crash, Makoto had experienced the green phenomena every midnight.

During the time, the girl would be hysterical and no matter how loud she would yell, no doctor would come to give a sedative which was weird since she was monitored every hour and her relatives came in every half an hour to check on her but in that hour, no one else would come and it really felt as if they were the only two people left in the world. The hour was unnerving to him, spooky and abnormal and the girl definitely felt

It would start with a whimper, and a cry for her parents, then a wail until it turned into hysterical cries followed by self-mutilation to her arms and face. Every time she would break down, Makoto would wince, clutching his chest in hopes the feeling would subside but it never did and the girl would cry and scream for an hour until everything went back to normal and the doctors injected her again, strangely a minute after midnight.

She had given him something to think and feel about. Unlike him, she had a family waiting and worrying for her and yet she was confined to the bed, trapped in a cycle with no end on the horizon. She was not getting better and Makoto was suffering alongside her for some strange reason. He tried to brush it off but could not stop the tightening and tugging of his damaged heart each time she would wail the name of her parents. Then he waited for the time she would get over the despair but days passed and nothing changed.

On the 5th day, enough was enough. As soon as the strange hour started, the bed next to his began to rumble as much like always the female began to freak out the minute the strange hour flickered across the globe.

"Mommy!"

"Daddy!"

Makoto waited a few minutes, hopeful that her family or the staff would come rushing in but she only got louder, and the ache in his chest only grew more and more dull and painful with every passing second. He had not walked in so long but he gripped the edge of his bed and pushed himself up to stand, his small and rusty legs unable to carry his weight without support from the furniture.

"I-I have to..." Makoto mumbled to himself already seeing the shadow of the girl behind the curtain thrashing and clawing her own arms during her hysterical screams and sobs for her dead parents. A particularly shrill screech sent him to the ground and he have sworn that his heart stopped for a few seconds but he rose moments later, now able to stand on his two feet.

With every step towards her bed, Makoto found it difficult to get his breath out. He was actually hurting and it was getting worse, which was crazy because he did not even know who the girl was. His vision blurred but he staggered, almost collapsing backward a few times but eventually he reached for the curtain that had separated them for the past couple of days.

As soon he pushed the curtain to the side and saw her, bloodied up from her self-mutilation and face drenched because of her tears, Makoto froze as if something had snatched every last bit of breath from his petite body. The feeling hurt way worse now and he was started to regret ever doing this and seeing her like this.

Makoto glanced over towards his own quivering hands and then moved closer to her side. The girl was now starting to clutch and claw at her throat, struggling to breath and Makoto freaked out on how to help her. He was no doctor and ever since the accident he barely had half of his senses intact but he wanted to help her, somehow, someway, and just get her to stop crying and hurting herself.

"H-Help!" Makoto yelled for the first time in a week, coughing after it because his throat was still scratchy and itchy. "Someone!" Nobody answered his call and the boy started to chew on his fingers, the screams, now almost deafening almost chucking away at his sanity bit by bit by bit. He moved closer to her when her yells grew hoarse, with coughs and gags as if something was choking her from the inside.

"D-Dammit."

"Mommy!"

"C-Calm down..."

"Save me!"

"..."

"It hurts!"

When it seemed she was just about to pass out from the lack of breath, Makoto finally made an attempt to calm her, gripping her hand with his own and squeezing it tightly and soon as he even touched her, when his fingers made contact with her, he felt the flow of time freeze for a split second and then a loud bang of a window smashing behind him. For the first time since the accident Makoto was legitimately surprised by another stark shift in his environment, now colorless and so cold.

"H-Huh?"

The color faded back into his surroundings and the green returned to the world around him. He felt a squeeze on his hand and looked back down to see the girl now awake staring up at him, still looking mortified and shaken. But now at least she had stopped screaming and clawing herself. She took a brief glance at their small interlocked hands and spoke in a hushed whisper, so low that Makoto could barely understand what was being said.

"W-Who are you?"

Makoto shook his head and crouched next to her bed. He took a few tissues out of the box on the desk and began to wipe and clean the blood and tears off her face, something that detested him because it physically hurt him to see her like that. His grip was still on her hand and he was gentle, making sure he wouldn't wipe the scratches too hard.

"Y-Your hand." The girl whimpered, squeezing his hand even tighter than before. "It feels so warm."

Makoto did not reply but he had to admit, her grip on him felt warm as well. The girl on her side and gripped his hand with both of hers, staring at him in wonder and surprise as he continued to clean the wounds after disposing of a bloodied tissue.

"T-Thank you." The girl said after he was done. She still looked a bit shaken up and tired but Makoto was thankful that she was back in her senses. He could not even begin to wonder how a simple touch was able to break her from the cycle of despair but he was too glad to care about the question. "Thank you so much. I was so scared. It... It felt someone was choking me."

"..."

"What's your name?" The girl asked.

"... Makoto." Makoto replied and made the move to get back to his bed because the entire event had drained him, especially after watching her thrash and yell on the bed but as soon as he tried to break free, the girl gave a sharp gasp, and then the familiar wail of agony. Makoto froze again and he was pulled back, this time falling alongside her on the bed with the girl now hugging his arm, with a pleading look in her teary red eyes begging him not to go.

"Don't go, Makoto." She pleaded once more and Makoto nodded placing his other hand over her to observe a small twitch of her lips. Upon that, he felt something nice bubbling in his chest, a soothing and calming feeling for the first time since the disaster on the bridge.

"What is your name?" Makoto asked this time.

"Hamuko." The girl replied and scooted closer. It felt surreal, like they were the only people alive in the world currently, even more surreal was the fact that the boy next to her had broken her out of the maddening trance, when her family members and the top doctors had failed. "I-I want you to stay."

"Stay?"

"Stay and don't leave me." Hamuko sniffed and Makoto thought she was going to tear up again. He gave her hand another squeeze and Hamuko stabilized with her head lowered. "Don't leave me like my parents did."

That was right. She had lost her parents on the bridge too and from what he had heard, they were the only survivors of the horrible catastrophe that occurred on the bridge due to reasons unknown and probably never to be discovered.

"I... lost my parents too." Makoto said and felt a little disgusted of himself. Hamuko had nearly died in grief after losing her parents and here he was not able to shed a tear for them.

"What happened on the bridge?" Hamuko asked but he had no answers as he could not recall a single detail minus him crashing out the car. "I don't remember anything and ah!" She winced in pain when she tried to remember, shivering and threatening to crash and burn again but Makoto tugged on her hand and snapped her out of the horror before it was too late. He was visibly shocked when she quickly came to her senses and he again wondered what superpower he had acquired to work a miracle that even doctors could not.

"Sorry, I-I'm still a mess." Hamuko admitted with another whimper. "I'm so afraid."

"I'll be here." Makoto assured.

"T-Thank you." Hamuko bowed her and thanked him again. The two children looked out towards the window, observing the now yellow moon in the middle of the dark and green. Instinctively, Hamuko tightened the grip on his hand out of fear and Makoto did so out of something else.

Makoto did his best to hide his wounded eye out of shame. He sneaked a glance at her and saw that she was physically alright, unlike him, as he had lost more than just blood in the accident and operation, a few pounds lighter and incomplete, with a crippled heart and sanity. With a nod to himself, Makoto made a promise to himself that night, one for her sake and self-preservation because the constant ache in his heart had made one thing clear.

The two were not normal anymore.

Together.

* * *

**I AM SO SORRY MY DEAR MAKOTO! But this idea was a little too tempting. I still believe that P3D is canon and Makoto is happy but I also wanted to try this. Makoto's mother was holding him instead of him sitting in the backseat so he was wasted p badly in the accident.**

**Anywayz! Review for more. This is not going to be more than 5 and I warn ye, angst! **


	2. Growing Up

Makoto had made this a habit now. Every night just before the scary hour, he would get off his bed and approach the one opposite to his. He would then take a seat upon that one and hold Hamuko's quivering hand. The girl would rise up from bed and sit beside him, sometimes lean on him when she was drowsy or cry on his shoulder when she mourned her dead parents. As the days went by, she started talking, conversing about anything and everything that came to mind. The tears had lessened as Hamuko had grown attached to the boy, and much to the surprise of Makoto so had he.

First few times he dragged himself out of bed because her wails made his heart shriek for some reason but now...

"H-Hey, Makoto..."

"Yes?"

Hamuko softly poked his cheek, fingers tracing the fresh, red scar . "Does this hurt?"

"A little." Makoto admitted with a wince. A lot of the wounds still ached from time to time especially since he had stopped taken the medicines as they made him drowsy. As long as Hamuko was in the hospital, he was not going to sleep until after she did.

"Can I make them better somehow?" Hamuko asked and then quickly blurted whatever came to her mind. "I'll do anything! Um! Tell me if you want me to massage, like mommy asked me whenever she was in pain!"

"Mommy..."

Hamuko sniffed and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of the hospital gown she was wearing. She found his shoulder and leaned against her only friend in the world, sniffing and hiccuping but not breaking down as badly as she did before, instead, she clutched him tightly and Makoto did his best to hide the discomfort. The girl was going to leave him a mangled mess one of these days but... that was much less painful than the heartache her cries caused him.

"I-I... massaged mommy in the car too when she was crying." Hamuko remembered with a grimace on her weary face. "I tried really hard but... Mommy was still in pain."

Makoto briefly looked away when he remembered the flashes of the accident. The impact of the crash had hurled him out of the windshield but as he laid on the cold ground, he did get a glimpse of the dead body of his mother, just mere seconds before the vehicle caught flames and detonated, leaving nothing but ash and scraps.

"Pain... leads to death." Hamuko whispered quietly, but then found his hand. Makoto was surprised and sometimes he felt like his body moved on his own, listening to Hamuko instead of his own brain. "Mommy died because of pain."

"I-I don't want to see anyone else in pain." Hamuko said, and by now Makoto was sure she was taking to herself with the way she had almost started chanting the same exact sentence over and over. The same ugly shade of despair was on her. "I hate pain! I want pain to go away forever!"

A tug on her hand broke her out of the chanting and Hamuko faced her only friend in the world. Makoto could see the tears threatening to spill, with her cracked voice barely reaching his ear.

"A-Are you in pain, Makoto?" Hamuko asked almost frantically, squeezing the upper part of his body. Makoto felt the blood rush up to his mouth and the pain caused by the pressure around his surgically opened chest but he was left with no other option. Bitterly, the swallowed the blood and told a simple lie to calm her down.

"No Hamuko, not at all." Makoto said with a chuckle to mask his pain and the girl next to him gave a peaceful sigh like the weight had been lifted from her little shoulders. Upon that she hugged him with more force, suffocating and worsening the lash of pain.

"Why...?"

Makoto wondered yet again. From all the people who he had interacted with during his stay in the godforsaken hospital, he had no empathy or sympathy, not one ounce of it. Even the doctors who had saved his life somehow, he felt nothing and yet, this girl, this unknown, mentally unstable girl made him human again.

"Tell me if you are in pain." Hamuko whispered with the prominent quiver in her voice, clearly not wanting to hear what she had asked. "I-I'll massage you if you feel pain."

A grunt from somewhere outside made Hamuko tense up. Meanwhile, Makoto merely gave a look outside, wondering the source of the sound. That definitely was not a pet as the abnormal hour turned everyone, sans the two of them into coffins so... What was that thing outside?

"What was that?" Hamuko spoke after a little while to get his attention. "W-What even is this anyway? This scary hour, where did this come from?"

"I don't know." Makoto replied after thinking. "I don't remember this... before the accident."

"I hate it!" Hamuko whined and took a peek outside the window, shying away from the eerie yellow moon in the background of a dark emerald sky. "Feels like this time kills everyone and I am left alone to suffer."

Hamuko remembered her increased hysteria and instability in the past couple of weeks whenever the clock struck twelve. Something would snap in her head , and the hour would inspire a different level of panic and terror, to the point that she had started mutilating herself to focus on the pain rather than the fear.

But now...

"A-At least I have you with me now." The brunette smiled a little. Much like Makoto, she had questions about the boy as well. How he was able to snap her out of the horror and then keep her calm just by holding her hand. But, currently she did not want to find out the answers, she only needed him beside. "I am not alone anymore. I have you with me to... face this hour."

Face the horror together? He had no intention of doing anything about the unusual time period but the girl alongside him, he just had to. For the sole reason to watch over and keep her safe because...

He did not know...

Hamuko shifted a little closer and Makoto panicked a tad, moving backwards into the more shadowy part of the room to keep his rotting eye obscured. He did not want her to see that, partly because she would panic and partly... he felt ashamed to show his ugly, busted eye-socket to his new friend.

He did see Hamuko in the moonlight for the first time. Aside for her being cute and innocent, Makoto was happy to observe that she had no crippling injuries like him.

His heart told him to keep her that way, or else.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, with every little meeting during midnight and the conversation they could manage whenever they were alone in the room, Hamuko was starting to get better. At first she used to freak out whenever she saw anyone but aside from Makoto and a very few close family members, but now, she was able to converse with the nurse and doctors, even smile and laugh. She would pass Makoto a look whenever she was happy, a silent thank you every time.

"Hey, Makoto?" Hamuko questioned one day, staring out the window with his hand in her grip. "Do you think... we will ever be normal?"

"Normal?" Makoto replied to her but at the same time, he asked the same question to himself. After that episode on the bridge and everything that had happened since then, he doubted so. His eye was never going to heal and the ugly scar across his chest was going to remain until the day he would turn to bones.

This connection though, this almost soul-link between the two was temporary in nature and that was the only thing that bothered him. Hamuko felt a more firm grip on her hand and was happy to reciprocate the rare gesture.

"Normal? What do you mean?" Makoto asked after a couple of seconds, after he had taken care of the anxiety of losing the connection to Hamuko.

"I overheard a couple of kids who came along for a check-up." Hamuko explained, her crimson eyes downcast. "They were so happy, talking about games and cartoons. Why... Why don't we talk about that stuff, Makoto?"

Makoto had no answer. He, like any other kid was an avid fan of cartoons and gaming but the accident had either busted his memories or had left him incapable of anything but despair and apathy.

"We should be talking about how fun cartoons and games are but..." Hamuko took another peek at the outside world, transformed, bloodied and unknown. "All we talk about what happened to us, what happened to the world and what will happen to us in the future..."

"It can't be helped." Makoto followed her line of sight. They were both seven years old and yet had seen and suffered so much. Sure, a lot of people lost parents at young age but none of them had the displeasure of suffering through accursed hour like the two did. "We will be normal."

He lied. Hamuko was the only one with the chance of being normal between the two of them.

"But I don't think we will ever be the same again." Makoto finshed and was unnerved by the silence that followed.

"I think I get it." Hamuko nodded her head with a sad sigh. "We are forced to grow up fast, right Makoto?"

In his case, he was going to die much faster than her. He just had that feeling ever since the night. The doctors had revived him but he knew he had merely cheated Death, and the force of nature had left a mark on his chest. Death was going to come for him, if not today then very well tomorrow.

"I guess I have to." Hamuko lamented, looking at their entwined hand in her lap. "I don't really trust some of my family members. They always had issues with mommy and daddy and I don't like some of them."

"But... I feel..." Hamuko looked towards him and much like all the times before, Makoto ducked his head towards the shadows to hide the mangled part of his face. "I can trust you.. with anything, Makoto."

"You barely know me, Hamuko." Makoto said with his lip between his teeth. "Why do you trust..."

Before he could question her trust, Hamuko gave a cheerful smile and sat on her knees to face him. "True! So tell me!" She yanked him towards but Makoto still refused to leave his safe space. "I have been the only one talking so tell my everything about yourself. Come on!"

"Alright."

Hamuko had always wanted to question why he preferred to not look her in the eye and why his head was always low. At first he was shy but clearly that was not the reason as they held hands and leaned onto each other for almost an hour everyday. Regardless she did not ask and was eager to know about her blue haired friend.

From that point forward, Hamuko was the one who would get up from her own bed and join him on his, as it was farther away from the window. This setting worked for Makoto too as he was able to hide his eye much more easily. He pretended to sleep through the day with the blanket on his face, knowing that Hamuko would not disturb him. At first it was a problem but with every hour he spent with the brunette, he found it difficult to pull the act.

He wanted to talk to her.

He wanted to talk to her the whole day.

But at the same time, he was ashamed and afraid that she would find him hideous and never talk to him again.

Tch.

Just a few days ago they were talking about fast they were growing up and yet, here she was making him think like a kid.

Growing up...

Perhaps, growing up meant planning while keeping in mind and expecting the worse to happen. The catastrophe had definitely broadened his horizons and he was already thinking about the future. While Hamuko had issues with some members of the family, Makoto had no family left to call his own. He was a single child and none of his relatives were particularly found of him, as was evident that nobody had bothered visiting him more than once.

Regardless, he was not particularly bothered by the lack of love either. His only concern was to get Hamuko normal, as she had lamented about. He did not know why but even now, every bit of stress and every ounce of worry that she had, Makoto felt as well.

His heart was numb from his own problems but his soul...

This abnormal link between the two.

This abnormality had brought the two closer, otherwise they would have been total strangers. He wondered again... How long was it going to last?

His heart shrieked and Hamuko let out a small whine when she felt something very different from the pain that she was used to. Like a stab from the inside, not to her flesh but a gash on her soul.

"M-Makoto! Hey!"

He was not going to do this to her. As long as the connection lasted, he was going to enjoy the company of the only person who made him human. In return, he was going to be a device, a machine, a tourniquet to keep her stable, in what little time that he had left.

* * *

"Hey, Makoto." Hamuko said to him one day as she sat on the edge of the bed, rocking her little legs back and forth. Makoto sat with his back against the bed, still mostly hidden from her view.

"Yes?"

He was surprised to see her jump onto her feet, even more so when she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the bed. Makoto quickly ran a hand down his fringe to cover his eye and then stood up.

"Let's head outside for a bit." Hamuko said, widening his single eye. Head outside? Why was she looking to explore what seemed to be hell from the inside the hospital.

"Outside?" Makoto questioned and held his ground. "Are you sure, Hamuko? We are not sure what is out there."

"Oh come on," Hamuko pouted and started to drag towards the entrance. She had whined to her family about taking her out for a stroll but they refused, so, she had to turn to Makoto, someone she knew would not refuse her request. "Please, Makoto? Pretty, pretty please?"

Makoto shook his head and Hamuko stopped when she saw the look in his eye. She released his hand and looked down, scratching her own head while she tried to talk, the familiar grimace on her.

"Please? I want to head out for a bit." Hamuko admitted with a small whimper, the memory still fresh as the wound would take a long time to heal even a bit. "My parents died in this hospital. I need to get out. I don't want to stay here forever."

Makoto fell silent. Hamuko still mourned the death of her parents, unlike him. What she said was true, even Makoto had seen their dead bodies being carried away while a nurse carried a hysterical Hamuko along, her shouts filling the entire hospital with sadness.

"Okay." Makoto nodded and took her hand this time. He was still concerned about what outside the hospital, but, what was the worse that could happen? That growl they had heard once was probably a freak occurrence and it was crystal clear that nobody else but the two functioned during the Hour, so there was nothing to worry about. "Let's go outside."

"Thank you." Hamuko managed to smile before the tears could spill, something Makoto was proud of. "With you, I feel I can face... whatever is out there. I'll be fine, Makoto."

What was the worse that could have happened?

As soon as they stepped outside, the two seven year olds felt a chill even though it was peak summer. The chill they suffered was something different, like the chill you would get from the presence of a malevolent entity in the vicinity.

The world was green.

The streets were bloodied and lined up with coffins.

And the two were not alone.

Growing up?

Tch.

Makoto and Hamuko were still children at the end of the day, and they were alone to suffer the horrors of the abnormal hour. The lurking shadows now knew and everything that the two had build up was going to come crashing down.

* * *

**Author notes: AAAAH! So many reviews and favorites and follows and all the nice stuff! Thank you all so much. I wanted to update so much earlier but studies and personal problems got in the way, but anyway! Here is chapter number two! Let's do review replies. **

**Guest (Oct 6, 2019): Ahhhh, I am sorry for that horrible and sad headcanon XD Sadly his eye will not heal. And as made clear, Makoto is on borrowed time. **

**DeathHero61: Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.**

**Guest (Oct 14, 2019): Thank you. He needs cuddles and never ending and never letting go hugs.**

**Guest (Oct 18, 2019) Thank you so much for the review and the idea of them facing the Dark Hour. I will add a few chapters to detail the struggle and I hope you enjoy those. Again, thank you. **

**Wesieboy: Thank you. Not very nicely for the two, I'm afraid.**

**Keita Nararu: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one as well.**

**I hope the narration is not off putting as they still are kids but I did not want to make the narration feel cheap and simple. Also, I will be holding a poll for my stories so tell me in the reviews of the story(s) whether you want to see lemon/smut/yada yada. There will obviously be a scene as this is a romance story but, do vote in favor or against lemon. **

**Let's keep the review count rolling! I will update much sooner than before. Thank you all! n_n **


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